Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Vanderbilt Summer Academy?

Anyone have experience with this program for a rising 8th grader? Or other similar middle school summer camps strong in humanities?

DD11's camp requests:
- ideally 1 week, not longer than 2 weeks
- ideally on a college campus (she wants real beds, spider-free bathrooms, and air conditioning)
- buffet / try as many foods as you want meals
- lots of female participants (single-sex programs okay)
- ideally requires a plane change to get there (anywhere you name will meet this test!)
- class options in history / geography / literature / classics / social justice
- enrichment topics, rather than acceleration / for-credit
- no letter / number grades, narrative evaluations are just fine
- collaborative, non-competitive culture
- limited opportunities to get dirty / sunburned, indoor physical activity okay

Mom-criteria:
- racial / ethnic / religious diversity desirable
- US / Canadian programs only
- high volume of handwritten work may be problematic; high volume of reading / oral discussion would be fine
- DD will be 12 and a rising 8th grader for next summer and has qualifying ACT reading test scores for any program requiring test scores

All of the other shorter programs I've found have a math and/or science bent. Going up to 2 weeks adds the UVA Summer Enrichment Program, CBK GLOW, and U of Oregon Summer Enrichment Program.

Big-name 3-week classes (which I agree will be too long): TIP's designation of Humanities classes as "writing intensive" leads me to believe they'll be a poor match. I think she'd love the CTY Etymologies course if it were not 20 days long. CTY maybe has too wide of an age range, too.

Check out SCATS at Western Kentucky University. DD had a good experience there. It fits all your criteria (2 weeks).

Thanks! I'll put that one back on the list - not having course topics until 2 weeks before camp had concerned me.

The class listing was different in detail but very similar in scope as the previous year's listing. Many kids fax/email the course selection back, though, and DD mailed hers, so she got few of her first choices. If she goes again, you better believe it'll be scanned and emailed in the moment she gets the listings. That being said, the level of discussion was probably late high school/early college for most of her selections. DD will likely either do SCATS again this summer or VAMPY (3 weeks).

Looking at the 2014 course list, I'd say that nearly half of the options are ones DD would be happy to pick.

I honestly have no idea what level of discussion DD would be up for. I suspect that my yardstick is pretty skewed there.